Grazing Mentor Network – Mentor Information
Mentors with demonstrated experience and leadership in regenerative grazing will provide individualized guidance and support to mentees who are interested in adopting or improving regenerative grazing in their operations. They will participate in a mentor training program to receive initial training on mentorship as well as a variety of topics related to running a successful grazing operation, including soil health, adaptive grazing, succession planning, marketing, and business resources. They will be financially compensated for their time and effort (details below).
Qualifications
- Those interested in being mentors need to demonstrate experience with regenerative cattle production methods.
- Beef cattle should be a producer’s primary agricultural enterprise but full-time employment on the farm or ranch is not required.
- Mentors should be located in or near the designated regions for this program.
- Mentors must be able to commit at least three years to the GMN. We expect this time commitment to be approximately:
- 200 hours in year one mentoring 4 mentee cattle producers;
- 240 hours in year two mentoring an additional 4 cattle producers with 10 hours of mentoring being provided to each of the year 1 mentees; and
- 80 hours in year three providing 10 hours of continued support to each of the (8) year 1 and year 2 mentee cattle producers.
- Hours and resulting compensation in years 1 and 2 will also cover time invested in mentor training in the topic areas of soils and adaptive grazing, marketing, communication, family dynamics, mentoring, land protection and succession planning.
- The size of a mentor’s operation does not matter.
Responsibilities
- Provide mentorship in the form of technical assistance (TA) to other cattle producers on implementing regenerative grazing practices, and other practices and policies as outlined in the Climate Smart Beef Curriculum.
- Provide mentorship to up to ten mentees throughout the project.
- Conduct one in-person visit to mentee’s farming operation with Network Coordinator each year for the first two years of mentee’s participation in Climate Smart Beef program (i.e. each mentee will receive two in-person visits from [a/their] mentor in the first two years. TA topics and activities include completing mentee ranch assessments, establishing goals, regenerative grazing principles and practices, soil health, forage assessments, livestock health, applying conservation practices, technical & financial assistance programs and support organizations/resources, succession planning, financial planning, marketing, and creating a grazing management plan.
- Record activities conducted with mentees.
- Along with Network Coordinators, assist mentees with record keeping, recording, and reporting of program data via AgriWebb.
- Provide feedback and observations to AFT staff and complete surveys as requested.
Compensation
- Mentors will have the opportunity to receive $ 1,500 per mentee in the mentee’s first year and an additional $ 300 per mentee in each subsequent year of the program. With each mentor engaging with an estimated 8 mentees over the course of 3 years, total mentor compensation could be as much as $ 15,600 not including the value of FREE training, access to FREE livestock management software, extensive FREE soil sample analysis and much more!
- Mentors will receive $30/hr and will engage with each mentee for 50 hours in the first year, and 10 hours/yr until project completion; Mentees will be registered on a rolling basis.
- Mentors will be compensated for travel to mentees’ places of operation at the federal mileage rate.
- Mentors will be reimbursed for all travel expenses incurred attending in-person training sessions.
- Optional attendance to one three-day soils and adaptive grazing in-person training session.
Additional Benefits of Participation
- Mentors will be given a subscription to AgriWebb farm management and record keeping application and will be compensated $250/year for uploading their farm data.
- Mentors learn about and have access to financial assistance opportunities to assist in implementation of regenerative farming practices.
- Mentors get access to potential financial incentives.
- Mentors who fall into certain underserved producer groups may be eligible for additional financial assistance.
- Mentors are connected to an expansive network of regenerative beef cattle producers sharing ideas, challenges, and marketing opportunities.
- Mentors get access to subject matter experts and comprehensive resources.